Translated from French by Luc Sâr
Sad story
The contempt, the hatred and the slanders
By N. Sihanouk
Beijing, P.R. of China, November 26, 2008
The contempt, the hatred and the slanders
By N. Sihanouk
Beijing, P.R. of China, November 26, 2008
Here in Beijing, a French gentleman came to visit me recently.
He wrote a book on Norodom Sihanouk. And he will write another one. Regarding this new book on Sihanouk, he had several things to “clarify” and many questions to ask me.
Among these questions, this French gentleman told me: “My compatriots who read my first book about you, they have all made this remark: in this book, there was not a single line criticizing you (Sihanouk), [or] pointing out your vices, your mistakes, your shortcomings. “One of these compatriots said: “When he was in power, Sihanouk did not tolerate any opposition. Films on Sihanouk in power, during the 60s, showed Sihanouk’s opponents locked up in steel cages and paraded (sic!) just like wild circus animals … before they were shot.”
I never locked up, I never paraded anybody in one or several cages. My truthful compatriots who are currently still alive and who lived under Sihanouk’s Cambodia during the 60s, can testify that I never put anybody in a cage.
As for the compatriots who were “shot,” they were CIA Agents, sentenced to death by our National Military Tribunal, and to whom I, the Head of State, officially refused to pardon them.
(Signed) N. Sihanouk
He wrote a book on Norodom Sihanouk. And he will write another one. Regarding this new book on Sihanouk, he had several things to “clarify” and many questions to ask me.
Among these questions, this French gentleman told me: “My compatriots who read my first book about you, they have all made this remark: in this book, there was not a single line criticizing you (Sihanouk), [or] pointing out your vices, your mistakes, your shortcomings. “One of these compatriots said: “When he was in power, Sihanouk did not tolerate any opposition. Films on Sihanouk in power, during the 60s, showed Sihanouk’s opponents locked up in steel cages and paraded (sic!) just like wild circus animals … before they were shot.”
I never locked up, I never paraded anybody in one or several cages. My truthful compatriots who are currently still alive and who lived under Sihanouk’s Cambodia during the 60s, can testify that I never put anybody in a cage.
As for the compatriots who were “shot,” they were CIA Agents, sentenced to death by our National Military Tribunal, and to whom I, the Head of State, officially refused to pardon them.
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x x
These again are examples of contempt, hatred, injustice dedicated to me, for several years now, by France and many Frenchmen, one of whom even went on to say not so long ago: “My friendship with Sihanouk, it’s finished! I will only have contempt and hatred toward him.”x x
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x x
Thanks for all of this, France which, in 1941, at the death on maternal grandfather, H.M. King Sisowath Monivong, selected me to become King of Cambodia while I was still studying at the Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat in Saigon to become later a Professor of French, Latin or Greek in an Indochinese high school!x x
(Signed) N. Sihanouk
